Paulist Productions Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Hallmark Hall of Fame Collaboration The Lost Valentine on CBS

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 30, 2010) – Celebrating 50 years of creating award-winning, illuminating and affirming television and film production, Paulist Productions has collaborated with Hallmark Hall of Fame to produce The Lost Valentine, starring former Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt and former Golden Girl and media superstar Betty White. Scheduled to air on CBS January 30, 2011 at 9/8c, this is the first joint production between Paulist Productions and Hallmark Hall of Fame.

“We are thrilled to be commemorating Paulist Productions’ 50-year legacy of producing incisive and meaningful television with the production of The Lost Valentine, in association with Hallmark Hall of Fame,” said Rev. Eric Andrews, C.S.P., President of Paulist Productions. “Hallmark Hall of Fame has an unparalleled reputation for bringing high quality productions to television and we are very pleased with the opportunity to work with them.”

Based on the novel by James Michael Pratt, The Lost Valentine is a story of faith, hope, courage and most of all, never-ending love. Dramatizing those ideals in a multi-generational narrative that travels from the Philippine jungles of World War II to the urban landscape of a present day American city, The Lost Valentine makes Paulist Productions’ mission to provide affirmative television and film productions accessible to a diverse and modern audience.

Barbara M. Gangi, Vice President of production and development for Paulist Productions and Producer of The Lost Valentine, brought the project to Hallmark Hall of Fame.“I thought, ‘Valentine…love story…Naval hero. Hallmark would be the perfect home.’ My instincts were right. They loved the story!After years of pre-production and development, there is much excitement at Paulist Productions as this film comes to fruition,” she said.

Brent Shields (When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler) and Jennifer Love Hewitt serve as Executive Producers of The Lost Valentine;A Dog Named Christmas, Front of the Class) also produces along with Andrew Gottlieb (co- producers Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong and Maryann Ridini Spencer.Darnell Martin (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Cadillac Records, Their Eyes Were Watching God) directs from a teleplay by Maryann Ridini Spencer and Barton Taney.

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About Paulist Productions

Founded in 1960 by the late Fr. Ellwood “Bud” Kieser, Paulist Productions and its "sister" company, Paulist Pictures, create films and television programs that entertain and enlighten. Spiritual values are at the heart of each production. Throughout its history, Paulist Productions has won numerous awards including six Emmys, the Christopher Award, five Gabriel Awards and the Toronto International Film Festival Award. Fr. Bud Kieser also founded the highly respected Humanitas Prize, which celebrates television and screen writers who affirm the dignity of the human person and experience through entertainment writing. Endowed by the entertainment industry, it gives cash awards each year to the writers of television programs and feature films that do the most to enrich their audiences. For more information about Paulist Productions: www.PaulistProductions.org.

AUTHOR-PRENEURS!

"In today’s unpredictable economic times, the only investment with any appreciable security at all is clearly investing in your own creative career—something you and only you can have control over. As I watch the Dow-Jones rise and fall and see that the projects of so many writing clients moving forward toward their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, I commend all creative people with the vision to take risks on their own creativity. One thing for sure, the worst things are, the more the world needs stories!" -- Ken Atchity, the Story Merchant

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